As telecommunications customers use more telephone lines for facsimile machines, Internet access, telephone service and other uses, more telephone lines, or twisted pairs, need to be connected to homes and businesses. A twisted pair typically runs from a twisted pair access terminal (such as is typically found on a telephone pole) to a customer's home or business to provide a telephone line. A twisted pair is two insulated copper wires twisted around each other to reduce induction (and thus interference) from one wire to the other. The twists, or lays, are varied in length to reduce the potential for signal interference between the pairs. Several sets of twisted pair wires may be enclosed in a single cable. In cables greater than 25 pairs, the twisted pairs may be grouped and bound together in a common cable sheath. Twisted pair cable is a common type of transmission media and is the normal cabling from a central office to a home or office, or from a public branch exchange (PBX) to an office phone. Twisted pairs include two copper conductors, which are generally solid core, although stranded wire is used occasionally in some applications. Each conductor is separately insulated by polyethylene, polyvinyl chloride, flouropolymer resin, Teflon, or some other low-smoke fire retardant substance. The insulation separates the conductors, thereby avoiding shorting the electrical circuit which is accomplished by virtue of the two conductors, and serves to reduce electromagnetic emissions. Both conductors serve for signal transmission and reception.
When connecting a new telephone line for a customer, an installation technician may be instructed by a call center where to find a vacant twisted pair located at a specific twisted pair access terminal. For example, the call center may instruct the installation technician that there is an available twisted pair at an access terminal located at a certain address or a certain geographic location. Even though the call center has records indicating that the access terminal has an available twisted pair, the call center records are sometimes incorrect. Therefore, typically, the installation technician arrives at the location of the access terminal and verifies that the twisted pair is in fact available and functioning. To verify that a twisted pair is available and functioning, the installation technician climbs a pole (if the access terminal is on a telephone pole), and tests binding posts inside the access terminal. Typically, each twisted pair is connected to a tip binding post and a ring binding post. The twisted pairs in the access terminal are tested to determine if there is a vacant pair that is functioning properly. Oftentimes, there is not a vacant pair if all the twisted pairs are grounded, shorted or in use. The verification process may be time-consuming. Oftentimes, another installation technician or a cable installation technician (who originally installs the twisted pairs) has previously tested the twisted pairs. However, this previously gathered information is not typically available to other installation technicians.
Accordingly, there is a need in the art for a twisted pair status indicator to indicate whether there are available and functioning twisted pairs in an access terminal. It is with respect to these considerations and others that the present invention has been made.